The bill would require agencies to charge unions for value of official time each calendar quarter and also charge unions for the value of office space and other resources they provide. Image: SmartPhotoLab/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe House Oversight and Accountability has backed on party-line votes a bill to require federal unions to reimburse agencies for the value of official time and to poll federal managers on their views of the employee disciplinary process.
The former, HR-9594, is the latest move by Republicans against official time, which is on-the-clock time that employees with union roles such as steward can spend on certain union-related matters such as representing employees in grievances. Numerous bills have been introduced but failed to progress over the years to end the practice, which unions point out is authorized in law as a tradeoff for their responsibility to represent all bargaining units regardless of whether they pay dues.
The bill would require agencies to charge unions for value of official time each calendar quarter and also charge unions for the value of office space and other resources they provide; its determination of the value would not be subject to review by the FLRA or other outside entity. Management could cut off both if not paid within a month, also not subject to review.
The other bill, HR-9593, would require managers to be annually surveyed on questions including whether they: have confidence that their agency leadership will support them if they try to discipline an employee; have opted not to attempt to discipline an employee over the past year because they have no confidence in the system; have adequate training regarding how to discipline employees; and have adequate time to observe new employees and attempt to correct deficiencies before their probationary period expires.
Other questions would include whether “The inability to discipline poor performers or otherwise bad employees hurts the morale of my work unit” and whether “Good employees in my work unit have left because of the inability to discipline problematic employees.”
Sponsors said that the intent is to assure that the voices of managers are heard—even though managers are over-represented among respondents in the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which also asks some questions about what is done with poor performers in the workplace. Democrats termed the questions as leading, intended to build a case for strengthening management’s hand.
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